[<Message[>>][<Author[>>][<Subject[<Thread[>>]
Number : 7643
Date : 2004-04-13
Author : Kan Yabumoto
Subject : Re: Temporary Reboot Screen
Size(KB) : 3
Ron Hossack wrote:
>>The last image file (xxreboot.bmp) was originally designed
>> as the initial boot screen image (interjected into one
>> of the boot sequence file and is quite tricky).
>
> I really like this. Is there something I need to add
> to my batch file for this to display when rebooting?
First of all, Ron's post did not have any reference except
the one sentence that was fetched from somewhere.
It took quite sometime to figure out where it came from.
http://www.xxclone.com/desktop.htm
The xxreboot.bmp mentioned above was the last image
that was shown int the page which look like:
http://www.xxclone.com/img/xxreboot.jpg
Anyway, I wrote in our web page that it is quite tricky.
If it were not tricky, we would have incorporated it.
The freeware, BOOT-XP gave us the idea.
http://www.bootxp.net/
Basically, the technique explained by BootXP is to
replace the bitmap image displayed by WinXP with our
own image. Unlike the Win9X case (in which case, it
is easy), in order to replace the boot screen, one has
to patch the NTOSKRNL.EXE file which contains the
bitmap file as an attached resource to the program.
This is weird.
I have no idea why Microsoft's engineers decided to put
the boot screen image data into the NTOSKRNL.EXE file.
A more orthodox way to do such thing would be to provide
the image file as a stand-alone file (as in the case of
Win9x). BOOTXP.NET actually gives us the tool to
replace the Microsoft-supplied boot screen image by
our bitmap file. I would not be surprised that there
is such a mechanism that are already in place.
Furthermore, let me speculate that the mechanism is
to enter the filename of your replacing image into some
pre-determined place inside the system registry.
I have not succeeded in locating what is the system
registry entry. Probably, engineers who work for DELL
or HP knows the secret. There should be a simple way.
Or, more simply, a presence of an image file in
a pre-determined directory under certain file name
may let the WinXP to display the user-supplied image
file. So far I have not found such a neat trick.
Rather, I came across Boot-XP.NET to do just that.
But, BOOT-XP method uses a brute force by patching the
NTOSKRNL.EXE file using your image file. Although
we could incorporate the same idea into XXCLONE,
we decided not to (at least not now). The reason why
we hesitate to do what BOOT-XP does is that one of the
key system files that is used in the boot sequence
must be modified by patching it in a crude way.
Although we would probably achieve 99% or better success
rate, we just do not think the risk of making the
system unbootable is acceptable to XXCLONE users.
It was designed to be shown when XXCLONE will go
through a dual re-boot sequence (one of the rare
features in XXCLONE that transfers the system
registry files using the parallel install technique).
But, the dual re-boot sequence is invoked (automatically)
only when the regular one-step system registry transfer
technique (without reboot) fails. So far in our beta
testing, very few people reported that the XXCLONE
session did go through the dual re-boot was necessary.
Then, there is another reason why we dropped the idea
(after investing some time to create the image file)
was that the initial boot display will be a poor
choice to remind the user that this Windows session is
a temporary boot. Most likely, the user will forget
that he is in a temporary boot from the cloned disk.
On the other hand, the desktop wallpaper will constantly
remind that the environment is not the real one. So,
the wallpaper technique will be much better.
Kan Yabumoto
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